David Chiesa: Teaching Hamlet to Students in China

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During his time in the Peace Corps, David Chiesa (MATESOL ’10, LPA Certificate) taught students in China to perform the play Hamlet.

July 21, 2010

David Chiesa (MATESOL ’10, LPA Certificate) completed two years of the Peace Corps, China as part of his master’s degree program. Living in China’s poorest province, Guizhou, he taught English at the university level to students of translation and interpretation.

After returning to the Monterey Institute from the Peace Corps, David presented at the prestigious CATESOL convention, working from a paper begun in his Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistic Research classes. In his paper, he used his teaching experiences in China and Japan to build upon an existing model of SLA, emphasizing the role of attitudes in learners’ success.

In his second year at MIIS, David completed a certificate in Language Program Administration, which bolsters’ TESOL students’ knowledge of and experience with the management side of language education.

David will return to China this August as an English Language Fellow. This elite fellowship is offered by the U.S. State Department and Georgetown University to highly qualified MATESOL holders for the purpose of teaching English to foreign diplomats, university students, and by also promoting cultural understanding.